Israeli Arab fights boycott

May 31, 2007 9:00am

An Israeli Arab student is helping in the campaign against a British academic boycott. Amal Hassan Shehadeh, a post-graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, joined a team of Israelis who tried to lobby against the University and College Union’s efforts to promote a boycott of academics from the Jewish state. “I came to present the Israeli Arab side,” she told Yediot Achronot. “I am a Palestinian Arab and I came to tell the British lecturers that their boycott would also include the Arab population.” Shehadeh declined to give her opinion on Israel’s policies on the Palestinians, saying it should be relevant to academic freedom.”I hope the fact that I am an Arab will succeed in influencing those who wish to impose an economic boycott on Israel,” she said. “People can’t dictate to others what to think and how to act.”